Painting the House

After we bought our new house back in February, Andrew and I had been debating for quite some time whether or not to paint the exterior of our house, which is part brick and part siding.  Here's a before pic:

BEFORE

We never really disliked anything about the "before" look, but we were really looking for a fresh, new, updated look.  We had been spotting some remodeled houses that had newly painted brick, and really liked the look of it.  But we were scared.  Painting the brick is so permanent.  Once you put any paint on, you had to go for it.

So we went crazy and did it.  I decided to test out 2 colors I had narrowed it down to.  Both were a kind of khaki color, with just a hint of green.  One was "Fenland" from Sherwin Williams and the other was "Heath" by Martha Stewart.  I believe the siding color was "Grecian Ivory" by Sherwin Williams and the color for the shutters and the gutters was "Urbane Bronze" by Sherwin Williams.  With the first brush stroke of paint, I absolutely loved it.  I knew we had made the right decision to paint it, we just had to choose the perfect color.  We ended up choosing "Fenland" but it was a close one.

At the beginning of June, Andrew and I took a quick little vaca down to Destin with our friends, Jeffrey and Mary Melinda, so that we could go to the MS Dental Association conference and get some CE and some sun.  We opted to have the house painted while we were gone.  I think I was partly crazy for doing that, but Andrew's parents live down the street and popped in everyday to oversee it and update us on the progress.  When we got back, we had a brand new house!!

AFTER

I spy an Izzy girl...do you?

While the colors don't show up quite right in the pictures, you get the idea.  Hope y'all like the change as much as we do!

Dining Room Dilemma

Big news - we bought some new bedroom furniture!  We found a set that we both really like, and we are really excited to upgrade to a king!!  I know this sounds ridiculous but the master bedroom is really big, and only a king looks remotely the right size in there.  At least, that's what I convinced Andrew of :-)

So that leaves the living room and dining room as our two other rooms that need the most work.  We are contemplating a sectional in the living room, again, kind of because of the size and layout.  I never have really liked sectionals, but we found one we like, so now we have to measure it out to see how it will fit. 

The main dilemma we're having is with the dining room.  We don't have any furniture for this room.  I can't decide whether to have more of a china cabinet type piece of furniture or something more along the lines of a sideboard/buffet type piece.  My parent's have both, a sideboard/buffet and china cabinet, and Andrew's parent's have 2 china cabinets.  I'm not sure that we have room for 2 big pieces of furniture, so I can't decide which way to go if I can only fit one.  I like the sideboard/buffet idea because I can put lamps, frames, decorate, and even serve food on it.  I like the china cabinet idea because I can display our china and crystal.  

If you have a dining room, what kind of furniture do you have?  What are you're pros and cons for each?  Any help or advice is appreciated!

Passed!

I passed my board exam! whew - what a relief!!  Only a few more things until I graduate :-)  Mostly just finishing up patient procedures and several presentations to give, some in front of the whole school and some in front of a panel of faculty members - either way, I'm not looking forward to any of those!

I had a fun week working with Andrew in Oxford.  We tried to fit a little furniture shopping in, but no luck.  We moved our breakfast table and chairs and the coffee table in.  We also assembled the master bedroom bed and the guest bedroom bed and moved two dressers in.  Andrew's closet is full of his clothes and the master bed is made-up and ready to sleep in.  I just wish I was up there to enjoy it with him! 

I also can't wait for my little nephew, Sam, to arrive!  Only about 15 more weeks, I think.  I went into Belk to buy a gift for our friend Jennifer's baby shower, and ended up getting FOUR outfits for little Sam.  I couldn't resist...I know it'll probably just keep getting worse from here.  Darcy is doing great - please keep praying for a healthy baby!

Spring Break

This is my LAST Spring Break ever!!  Hard to believe, but it's exciting, too, because that means I'll be working in the real world before long! 

I seem to be getting worse and worse at this blogging thing.  I feel like every post is about why I haven't blogged lately.  If you've been reading my blog, you know my life's a little a lot chaotic right now.  I can barely manage to respond to an email most days, much less think up a blog post.  I will keep y'all updated on things as they happen, though, no worries!

I've been working with Andrew this week.  I love getting to see the clinic run and getting a good glimpse of the "real" world.  Plus I love getting to see my husband EVERY single day!!  I don't get that very often.

I came home to Jackson yesterday to work on my Grand Rounds presentation.  As part of my graduation requirements, I'll have to give a presentation in front of the WHOLE school, students and faculty members.  My turn is in 2 weeks!  eek!  I've decided to do my presentation on Sickle Cell Disease in Pediatric Patients and about the dental considerations when treating these patients.  I'm sure y'all aren't very interested in my research, haha!, but maybe you are interested in what I've been up to lately - and this is it!

Yesterday, I went to Sickle Cell Clinic day at the Children's Cancer Clinic (part of Blair E. Batson Children's Hospital).  It was so great to get to talk to all of the physicians, nurses, patients, and parents.  I loved every second of it and learned a lot of stuff that I'll be able to use in my presentation. 

Both of my parents get to interact with these sickle cell kids a good bit, so that sparked my interest in this.  My mom works with them from the pharmacy side of things, and my dad works with them by doing ultrasounds of their brains to see if they are at risk for stroke.  Yes, stroke...did you know KIDS can have STROKES?  Sadly, most people aren't aware that children can have strokes and usually they are misdiagnosed as the child just being "late" or slower to develop instead of addressing the stroke as the cause. 

On a happier note, we have been trying to look at some furniture for our new house.  I am really excited but it's hard to make all of these decisions!  I won't buy this kind of stuff for a really long time, if ever again.  I just want to pick the right things.  Also, trying to find time for us BOTH to go look at furniture is difficult.  We are trying to make good use of our time together this week, but most stores close by 6:00 or they are out of town.  Hopefully we'll have some luck soon!

Here's a picture of our new house:

I'm heading back up to Oxford today and hope to get some more moving/unpacking accomplished this week.  The goal is to be staying/sleeping there by the end of the week.  We'll be working again this Saturday, and then get to go to a baby shower for our sweet friends, Michael and Jennifer, and their little baby boy on the way :-)

Guest Bedrooms

It's tour-time again!  I skipped last week because we don't have any babies and therefore, no baby rooms :-) 

At our old house, we had 2 guest bedrooms.  We had a 3 bedroom house but it was just the two of us, so lots of extra room for guests to come visit!  If you read my blog, you've probably already seen both, because they were both "re-do" projects.  I redecorated and rearranged both rooms this year and both had to have been less than $50 if that much. You can read all about the office-bedroom here, and the real guest bedroom here.  They were both fun projects.  I knew we'd be moving fairly soon, so they didn't get much stuff back on their walls and not everything was ideally to my "taste" but they got the job done!  They made the house more homey and I hope they made guests feel more welcome and more at-home, too!  Our guests were usually Peter and Darcy (b-i-l and s-i-l) and occasionally one of Andrew's friends who needed a place to stay during the week when they had business meetings in Jackson the next day.

Here are pictures of both rooms:

the real guest bedroom

the office/guest bedroom

Thanks for touring!  Remember to leave a comment on the "Just Wondering..." post below!

Office/Study Room

Kelly's touring home offices this week!

I posted this room not too long ago as one of my re-do rooms.  It's a guest bedroom and office.  We've called it lots of different names...the study, the office, the back room, and "the library" (we think that sounds the fanciest). 

looking in from the door

I love this desk - it was my homework desk growing up.  Unfortunately all these years later I am STILL doing homework at it :-(  but Andrew also uses it to pay bills and do his "stuff" there, too.  I'm sure you've spotted the skull already...that's Harry.  Andrew thinks it'd be cool to have in our dental office one day.  Next to Harry is an autographed picture of Eli Manning and some sort of famous baseball players that I'm of course supposed to know who they are.  There's also a bride and groom Mickey and Minnie from our honeymoon up there. 

looking towards the door, from the window

We did have a little futon thing in here before, but wanted to put a real bed in when we got the house ready to sell.  Ironically it made the room a lot bigger.  Izzy's little bed doesn't belong there, and I'm really not sure how it got there for this picture, but whatev, it's cute!  Of course it bugs me there's no headboard, but this was only temporary.  I also LOVE my Walter Anderson "A" print that Peter and Darcy got me for Christmas one year!! 

Hope you like my office/study/back room/library...whatever the room is!

Kitchen Time

Kelly's touring kitchens this week, so here's mine (at my old house...still weird to say!).

looking from the laundry room/pantry area

abnormally clean countertops..

I took a lot of pictures around the house before we moved, so these aren't quite as accurate as our normal "lived-in" life in that kitchen.  

Way before we were married, or even engaged, Andrew and I painted the kitchen the two-tone blues and added the chair rail around the perimeter.  It was our first big "project" on the house :-)

My Almost Dining Room

I'm still continuing to do Kelly's link-up for the Show Us Your Life series on homes, even though I've moved out of "my" home.   I'll just show my old house (already sounds so weird to say that!!). 

We are all moved in at my parents' house.  Funny, I actually feel like I have more space here :-)  Andrew and I will be wandering nomads for the next few months (between my parents and his parents), but we are blessed!  We may live a crazy and chaotic and exhausting life right now, but I try view it as a "season" of life and enjoy it for what it is. 

So here is my "almost" dining room.  I say that because we didn't have a formal dining room space at that house, just a lil' eat-in kitchen.  We used the table and chairs set that I had in my apartment before I got married.

view from standing in the kitchen

all set!

Our "everyday" place setting :-)

No frills, but I like it.  Sorry I'm a little behind on the posting...better late than never!

Moving Monday!

We put our house up for sale on a whim at the beginning/middle of August, and we were under contract 26 days and 3 showings later.  Since then we've been just going through all the pre-closing stuff like inspection, appraisal, etc.  We have the official closing this Thursday, so we have been packing up in order to make our move this Monday. 

So where are we going? We are moving into my mom and dad's house for now.  We'll have the whole second floor to ourselves, which is practically the size of our little house.  [thanks, mom and dad!]

To be honest, I didn't really think it would sell so fast, but I am relieved.  I just want to be "settled" again so I can prepare for my upcoming national board exam (boooo).  I'm a mix of emotions about the whole move: excited (to start a new chapter), sad (to leave our first home), relieved (that it sold so fast), and stressed (about packing and moving an entire house)! 

And since I'll be in school Monday, I've left it ALL up to my husband and my dad.  HAVE I LOST MY MIND?!?! Absolutely. Positively.  I had nightmares about unpacking all of this stuff about 6-8 months later and not knowing what box anything was in...so I gave Andrew extensive directions on packing.  My main request was that he write on the outside of the box everything that was inside the box.  Check.  Some of the boxes have essays on the outside.  At least he listened :-)

Last time my dad and Andrew were involved in a move without my presence (moving my sister to Memphis), it included Andrew on top of the moving truck at one point while dad was maneuvering/driving around a sharp curve.  Please pray there are no shenanigans like that this time.  Please.

My Master Bedroom

This week at Kelly's Korner, the "Show Us Your Life" theme is the Master Bedroom.  So here's a peak into mine! 

The pictures are a few months old so there have been a few updates, but you'll get the idea...

view from the door when you walk in

another view from the door in, looking towards the door to the deck

view from the closet door/deck door

just another view...

Some of my favorite things:

• old furniture - all of our furniture is from our childhood
• the picture above the bed is needlepoint my great-grandmother from France made
• door to the deck - Andrew [handy-man husband that he is] and a friend took out the window that was originally in its place, put the door in, and built an awesome 16x16 deck off the master bedroom [it'll be included in the "backyards" post to come].  We love having this extra space off of our room :-)

I know it's a little plain, but we recently painted the walls a few months ago, and we decided not to put too much up on the walls because we know our time in this house was limited.  Thanks for taking a look!

My Living Room

Kelly's Korner is starting up the "Show Us Your Life" series again, so I decided to join up this time. 

This week's theme is the Living Room, so here's a peek at mine!

It's itty bitty cozy, so 1 pic does the trick!  I need to learn to take better pictures of rooms.  We have beautiful dark stained floors, but this picture doesn't show them at all :-( and our rug is actually pretty small. ha. 

I loathe corner fireplaces (unless you have a snazzy flatscreen mounted above, which we obviously do not).  Corner fireplaces make it so frustrating to arrange a room around, especially a room with two very short walls and 2 doors.  I've probably tried a bajillion (yes, a bajillion) different ways to arrange, and just gave up.  The new coffee table did help make the space feel more spacious.  I just remember the Nester's motto: It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.

These are a few of my favorite things...

• the pottery pieces we've collected and received as gifts :-) especially our McCarty lamp...i love that thing.  Is it bad to love a lamp?
• my drapes.  the first drapes/curtains i've ever bought/purchased.  My mom and I always sew them.  but these beauties were on $8 clearance at Wal-Mart.  You just can't buy the fabric for that cheap.
• the new coffee table. that my husband built.  with his own two hands!
• the "twig" table, as I call it.  in the bottom of the picture to the left of the couch.  it's such a quirky little piece, i like it.  since my photography skills of this room are far from stellar, here's a pic: 

 Hope you liked the lil' sneak peak inside! 

Handy-man Husband does it again!

I am so impressed!  He made these awesome new outdoor chairs for our front porch + a matching table from scraps. 

I'm in love with the chairs and my husband. 

We like the adirondack chair look, but I feel like I'm always too low on the ground and it's hard to get out off.  These chairs were the perfect variation.  Normal seat height, but similar look.  Here are the plans...check 'em out.  We are obsessed with the Knock-Off Wood website - see the button over on the right side bar.  Our next house will be FILLED with handmade and custom-made furniture - just wait and see!  Andrew has really enjoyed having little projects to work on while I'm doing school stuff (scheduling patients, figuring out how to graduate, studying, etc).  I can't wait to be FINISHED with school so I can partake in the building fun. 

Office Room Redo

Finally snapped some pictures of the other guest room, which we mainly use as an office/study room.  We re-did this room for FREE.  At least I really can't think of anything we spent money on. 

We already had the paint in the garage from before I even knew Andrew, so I count that as free.  Plus it's been painted for about a year, but nothing else has been done to the room.  The paint is called "French Pastry" and I think it shows up more yellow in the pictures than in the room. 

There used to be a teeny cot-sized futon in here, but we luckily snagged this twin bed from my parents' house.  It's actually the trundle bed to a daybed - but don't tell!  Originally I wanted to make the bed a daybed because I felt like that was more "fitting" for an office type of room, but then that meant either buying new bedding and bedskirt OR way too much effort in making the existing bedding work for a daybed.  Plus I only have one sham.  AND the whole point was to re-do this room for free.  So it's a regular bed.  boring.  but free :-)  It also really bugs me that I don't have a headboard or at least a painting/picture up there.  I argue with myself over that one.  We've been trying to actually take-down all the bajillion things we have on the walls in this house, so I might just leave it plain-jane even though it still annoys me. 

If you EVER saw this room before, you will appreciate that this is a HUGE difference.  But if you didn't see it before, hopefully you still think it's pretty cute for being FREE!

Handy-man Husband

I am supposed to be studying for my test tomorrow.  [Seriously? I still have tests?!]  However, I have to take some time away from studying [or time before I study] to BRAG on how awesome my husband is at building little projects for me us and our house!

His latest project was a new coffee table for our tiny cozy little living room.  The first/previous coffee table we had is still our fav, but it's just too big for our space.  After hours and multiple attempts at re-arranging to make the space better, we decided a new and smaller coffee table would be best.  Of course we didn't really want to break the bank or budget for one either....so....Andrew built one!  I think it cost about $50 total. And, it's just what we needed!

I wish I had a before picture and some "during" pictures.  Sorry :-(  but here it is the final product:

He built it and I stained it!  It was a fun project for both of us!


It has a hinged top so you can hide the remotes and coasters inside.  It will even fit a laptop computer.  I didn't have anything to hold the top up, so ignore my foot...

We're thinking of getting some baskets for underneath...what do you think? plain or baskets?

I was so impressed with his handy-man skills! 


Sorry the postings have been sooo scarce lately.  And I'm sorry if I haven't participated in any of your tags -  I promise it's nothing personal - I just have been so unbelievably busy lately!  I promise I will try to do better :-)


Some upcoming posts: Hogan family beach trip last weekend and Fourth of July in Oxford this weekend.

My brother in law turned 30 today!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETER!!!

better late than never?

I apologize from the month-and-a-half-long hiatus from the blog.  School and life just caught up to me! 

Today is the last day of my D3 year...which somehow sneaked up on me.  This year has flown by.  Now there's only 372 more days until I am a D.M.D. and the latest "Dr. Ross."  Let the countdown begin!

My graduation isn't the only big thing happening 372 days from today.  My little sis' Kelly graduates from nursing school THE. SAME. DAY.  She's graduating from UT-Memphis at the Fed-Ex Forum at 1:30 the same day I'll be graduating from UMC at the Coliseum at 10:00.  Geez Louise.  We'll obviously have to divide the parents up,  but not sure how that will work.

What have we been up to lately?  We've made several trips to Oxford, which probably doesn't surprise any of you.  Some of those trips included the Red & Blue Spring Football Game, Ali & Richard's Shower, the Double Decker Festival, Mother's Day, etc.  And all of them were a blast, of course. 

We've also been busy with some projects around the house.  Basically just some furniture re-arranging/removing.  Trying to de-clutter the house.  We made a few changes in the breakfast area, took out the baker's rack, lowered the light, etc.  We worked on our deck, putting new furniture out there and hanging up shades.  We made Izzy a "fancy" bed.  Yes, I know, we're ridiculous.  It cost < $10 because we used scrap wood and fabric from wal-mart.  We "framed" our basic bathroom mirrors to make 'em look more spiffy.  [What a super easy and super cheap project!]  The project we're working on now is the study room.  We took the futon out and are taking out one of the bookshelves.  Then we're taking the big table out of there (even though it's an awesome study table) and replacing it with the desk in our bedroom (because we have too much furniture in our bedroom).  Then we're going to put a twin bed in the study to replace the futon, but we're making it a daybed so it'll be more couchy-officey.  All we've done so far is take out the futon and some knick-knacks so it'll be a while before I can show some pictures (i.e. we actually have to do work.) 

Here are some pictures of our other progress:


Izzy's Bed.  Complete with a bedskirt and blanket.  I know...ridiculous, right?

Our deck!  We love this "addition" off of our master bedroom.  I spy Izzy girl...

Framed up guest bathroom mirror.  We did the same thing in the master bathroom, too.

and this isn't really a new project, but it's Izzy's new favorite toy.  Dora the Explorer!  How funny?  We caught all these stuffed animals and toys at Mardi Gras, and she found them the other day and pulled every. single. one. of them out all over the house! 

So that's what we've been up to...nothing crazy but all fun!

What we've been up to...

Last Friday 2/12, we had LOTS of snow.  I think we had about 4-5 inches at our house...and it was beautiful!!  Andrew and I both had a snow day from school/work, so it was nice to have the day together.  I wasn't sure how Izzy would react to the snow, but she absolutely LOVED it.  We had to keep bringing her in and take off her "clothes."  She had on a little doggy t-shirt and jacket to keep her warm, but the snow kept making her soaking wet.  She'd come in, warm up, and then sit by the door and WHINE to get out again. 

Here are some pictures of the snow:

Our backyard

Izzy LOVES snow!

Andrew and Izzy

Izzy warming up by the fire - her new favorite spot!

Our house 

After the blizzard died down, later that afternoon, we packed up and headed down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras weekend.  We stayed with the Sellers and had an absolute blast!  It was Andrew's first trip to NOLA and his first Mardi Gras - he ate it up!  

Friday night at the Muses parade

On Canal Street about to head to the French Quarter















all of the girls on the trip

us, with the newlyweds - the Werners!

Andrew's now a Mardi Gras pro.

This is in front of the Seller's house on Canal Street - a perfect spot for watching the Endymion parade!

Megan and I ready for more beads!

already ready for next year!